farming

On August 1st we went on a Matanuska - Susitna Valley (Mat-Su Valley) Farm Tour.  A bus took us (Dave, me and our friend Waverly) and 40 other folks to 3 different vegetable farms, a bison ranch and the only active creamery in Alaska .  We got some good ideas, ate good food and had a great day seeing an amazingly beautiful area of Alaska.   New on my list to grow next year: turnips and kohlrabi, both SOOO good raw!  We learned a lot about the history of farming in Alaska as well as the current challenges faced by farmers.  There is so much that goes on behind the scenes economically, politically, and socially!  It really made me want to be more active in the local agriculture movement than just buying produce at the farmers market :o)

This farm was by far my favorite - it was beautiful, organic and cozy/homey feeling.

This farm is a you-pick farm that does a lot of great education for school kids and sells it's produce at a half that at the grocery store! (the pic below is a potato patch tiller!)

This is the bison ranch, also where we had a delicious lunch of local beef stew, mixed green salad, homemade rolls, strawberry juice (!) and rhubarb strawberry hand pies (OMG!).  The view was breathtaking.

The creamery was our next stop.  Although they do not sell products direct to the consumer, they do sell at multiple local grocery stores.  We now buy their milk!  YUM!!!

Our last stop was a larger farm that does sell some produce to some of the local grocery stores and is the largest farm in the Mat-Su Valley.

Things that made me smile

I'm trying to blog more regularly (um, which might not happen)...
I decided that maybe just sharing a few things from the past week (or so) that made me happy, might make it easier to keep on top of sharing/blogging.

So, here it goes - in random order:

a great early morning run with my puppy dog

 the poppy seeds I planted have started to bloom

 exploring a new trail on another great morning run  

same run... crazy fog made the first half of the run seem like we were in a different world!

my first attempt at nasturtium pesto (also planted from seed and is now flowering! YAY!)

and - the pesto is delicious by the way!

 This handsome man took me for a bike ride and picnic along the Chester Creek and coastal trails...complete with wine, first course, second course and dessert!

 Most of you know I love graffiti...the third sign down made me laugh

Hiking Exit glacier in Seward

This past week we went on a farm tour in the Matanuska Valley and this weekend for an overnight kayak trip to Caines Head in Resurrection Bay.  I'll blog about those soon!